JAZZ4JEFF said:
I also attended the first taping. Two quick comments. The guests at the first taping were Kathi Najimi and Hal Sparks. They both brought lots of energy and comedy to the show. And, I found it odd the the pages kept telling the audience in line "These are Puppets, not Muppets". "Don't make the producer angry by calling them "Muppets". What was that all about?
That's hillarious, because NOONE outside of the Henson/Disney legal department considers a "Muppet" seperation between Sesame/Fraggle/Bear/Muppets and JHC. I mean Jim Henson Improv uses known Muppet characters, I don't see the big deal.
Now to be fair, while I consider Animal Jam and Bear muppets, these may fall in line with say, Dinosaur/Creature Shop/Fantasy World type...the use of no hand puppets to me indicates it isnt Muppets. I've never seen a Muppety type production with no hand rod puppets at all.
These puppets appear to be of the big bird type rather than the Gorg type, wherein the right hand controls the face, and the left hand is free.
But these pilots...will they ever be seen? I mean what happened to
the Muppet American Idol pilot spoof?